Joshua Bloom
Joshua Bloom, received his Bachelors in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he became involved as a student-activist. He was the Organizing Director for a key campaign to obtain more funding for student initiated outreach efforts to low income students of color in California.
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The campaign was successful, and gave birth to rich programming and more opportunities for organizing through alliance. After college, he began working with young people in Oakland and San Francisco in the areas of workforce development, academic counseling, music & media, organizing and advocacy. In 2011, he became Project Director of the ‘Heal the Streets’ program (Ella Baker Center for Human Rights). He co-wrote and implemented a youth-led, participatory action research curriculum designed to examine the root causes of violence in Oakland, CA. In 2013, he became the CA Organizing Director for ‘Young Invincibles’, where he would oversee three campaigns engaging young adults in debate around Health care, Unemployment and Higher Education. Joshua is a San Francisco native, but currently resides in Los Angeles. He takes a lot of pride in his experience with the diverse communities of California. He has a vision of inspiring young people to become soldiers in the face of inequality by coaching them to love, be critical, and to never become adjusted to injustice. Joshua is also a hip-hop artist-manager, and believes that music is essential to understanding and uplifting our people.
Zara Zimbardo
Zara Zimbardo, MA, received her Master's degree in Cultural Anthropology and Social Transformation from California Institute of Integral Studies, and has a B.A. in Religious Studies from UC Berkeley. For the last fifteen years she has been a body-based therapist both in private practice and community health centers.
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She was the producer of an award-winning alternative current events television series highlighting grassroots movements for social and environmental justice, and has developed critical media literacy workshops, presentations, and curricula in collaboration with a wide range of schools throughout the Bay Area, from elementary to graduate level. As a member of the National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the nation's oldest interfaith peace organization, she has worked in solidarity with nonviolent activists resisting militarism in the U.S., Israel/Palestine and Colombia. Currently she participates with various anti-racism programs, including the White Noise Collective that she co-founded, as a facilitator using critical dialogue and Theatre of the Oppressed, a form of community-based education that uses theatre exercises as tools for transformation. Ongoing research interests include the politics of representation; Islamophobia; collective memory; U.S. militarism; and nonviolent social movements.
Aja Minor
Aja Minor, M.A, is an educator with varied experience in social justice organizations from London to the San Francisco Bay Area. She dedicated her time to sharing Global, Human Rights and Popular Education curriculum with educational institutions across the world.
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Aja has been fueled to create social change through her study of International Studies, Music, Anthropology and Migration. She is passionate about providing low-income youth of color with access to global education and ensuring global education is critical and socially responsible! Aja Minor currently teaches at Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy and is studying for a Masters in Education.